You are on page 1of 10

Project outline

Course Project Outline


Ronald Dwight Donaldson Ronald.donaldson777@yahoo.com MGMT-591 Leadership & Organizational Behavior Dr. Christopher DeClerk -A.K.A. - Dr. D. August 3rd, 2013

maintech
Maintech is a wholly owned and operated subsidiary of Volt Delta Resources, LLC, and a major division of Volt Sciences Inc. Volt Sciences was founded over 50 years ago by William and Jerome Shaw, brothers who began the roots of the business in their mothers kitchen. The companys first official office was on the 6th floor of 34 Park Row in New York City. Today, Volt Sciences Inc. is still based in New York City, headed by co-founder William Shaws nephew, Steven Shaw, and has annual revenues in the neighborhood of two billion dollars. Volt Sciences counts many of the countrys largest businesses amongst its customers and joint venture partners.

Maintech has been designing, installing, and supporting both UNIX and PC desktop and server systems for the past thirty some years, providing computer system as well as LAN/WAN support services to mission critical, multi-vendor, multi-site applications spanning the Financial, Telecommunications, and Research and Development markets. As a remote Fault Management Coordinator (FMC) for Maintech, my role takes the form of insuring the right information gets to the right person or places and at the right time. Through a variety of finely tuned work flow systems I am able to coordinate mission critical business requests for hardware service support between customers and field service engineers, in turn ensuring for seamless solutions delivery and around the clock information systems support to the end of customer Service Level Agreement (SLA) fulfillment. (Maintech.com, 2013).

Reward systems &performance impacts


How can performance be impacted by reward systems? It is no secret that an integral aspect of prolonged business success pertains directly to the performance of its staff. Performance, then, being a direct result of an employees motivation to thrive within the company, begs the question; what exactly fuels an employee at any particular company to perform at a satisfactory standard. This in turn leads rephrased iteration of my original question; how might reward systems be used to impact performance? Without just compensation for his efforts, the extent to which ones labors might manifest, are but limited. But, with proper motivation, i.e. some reason that continues to compel employees toward excellence, the desired performance might easily be ascertained.

Scholarly resources
Schermerhorn, J., Osborn, R., Hunt, J., & Uhl-Bien, M. (2012). OB 12th Ed. This is the seminal work for the course in Organizational Behavior (OB). Of particular interest to my work here, are the theories pertaining to motivation perception, and job satisfaction. From the text, motivation refers to forces within the individual that account for the level, direction, and persistence of effort expanded at work. Miner, J. (2007). Organizational Theory 4: From Theory to Practice. This work is a compilation of similarly related works pertaining to the theory and practice of organizational Behavior. One particular citation from within this exceptionally well put together book is taken from the works of Lewin, K. (2005). Lewis, who found it within his capabilities to place mathematical equations around the issues of OB and make them work, coincides well with my typical left brain dominate thinking style and thus serves wonderfully to illustrate otherwise abstract concepts into rational constructs. Schwartz, D. (2008). Encyclopedia of Knowledge Management. As indicated in its title, perhaps it is evident that this too is another well-constructed compilation of relevant works pertaining to my overall purposes within this general inquiry. In an excerpt from the works of Ekbia, H. the theories and practices of organizational incentive management are called into light. The concepts found here relating to incentive based knowledge management are pivotal complimentary works to my research into the impacts of reward systems, or the lack thereof. Cameron, K., Dutton, J., & Quinn, R. (2003). Positive Organizational Scholarship. From this text, my research here has its interest in the work laid out by the author on the meaning of, and coinciding creation of a meaningful place of work. This text presents a look into the theories pertaining to what the individual employees perspective of his place within a company is, and why. Potential solutions are posed. Armstrong, M. (2009). Armstrongs Handbook of Performance Management. Regarding performance management, and pay, this work presents alternatives to the idea that incentive based performance management is necessarily involved with monetary gain, as a rule. Primarily, this work serves my interests in providing insights and new ideas into the assessment of performance and the value of reward. Wilson, T. (2003). Innovative Reward Systems for the Changing Workplace. From here I draw extensively as the work runs parallel to my specific interests in OB and reward systems. I have limited my research in this area to one source, which I have deemed most comprehensive, for the readers clarity.

Analysis

The problem having been previously identified as a lack of satisfaction within the relationship existing between satisfactory performance on the one hand, and on the other hand, satisfactory incentive to perform, I will now attempt to identify and expound upon the elementary roots of this issue. My goal is to find the answer which best meets the needs of all parties involved. Now, my research is based upon a particular, rather than a general subject, that is, the company I presently work for, and so my reflections will be most directly pertinent to these local parameters. However, I see no real reason why the subject matter cannot be applied and considered against the back drop of any other similarly arranged context. Having stated this, the root cause of the issue at hand is no mysterious element.

The core of the dilemma here regards an adequate reward system. How can employees feel confident to perform optimally without just compensation? According to Lewin, K. (2006) behavior is a functional interaction of person and environment, or B=f (PE). This simplistic illustration of behavior can be said, I think, to lay at the foundation of all related issues. The questions, does the environment foster performance? and does the existing reward system encourage excellence? It is already apparent from this small example that the impacts of reward systems upon performance in the work place are inherent in the very nature of the work and its entailed obligations, whatever they might be.

In short, there exists no feasible reward system whatsoever within for the FMC staff of Maintech. In fact, aside from the fact that I am able to work remotely, there is little incentive to work there at all, lest one is depraved of employment of any kind and in desperate need for monetary gain. We already know that motivation accounts for the level of persistence of a persons effort expended at work from the text Organizational Behavior, (Schermerhorn, J., Osborn, R., Hunt, J., & Uhl-Bien, M. (2012). So it should come as no surprise that the button that needs to be pressed by managers is the one that says motivate me. How this is accomplished is also a rudimentary claim, as employees are initially motivated to seek employment for a job, they are motivated to stay employed and perform optimally with an employer by incentives within the company, and not necessarily of monetary nature. The army worked quite well for me with its incentives.

According to Michael Armstrong, in his, Innovative Reward Systems for the Changing Workplace, as many as 73% of firms responding to national poll stated they did in fact use a metric system whereby performance was assessed, and from which, an employees potential earnings were deduced. This is all well and good, but the fact is that of these 73% Id be interested to know how many included the employee in this process. This is the critical mistake. I am possessed strongly of the opinion that a clear path of navigation, whether entailing a path of rewards for hard work, or a path of consequences for subordinance, a map absolutely must be laid before the employee so as to enable them to decide their own fate, as it were. Through the clouds of smoke, before me now, I do see the way.

Solutions
It is my strong felt belief that transparency within an organizational construct fosters and promotes optimal output from employees, and in turn contributes to the lasting success and overall worth of a company. If staff is blind to the opportunity they may or may not possess, I feel that a recipe for disaster is being followed closely. Optimally, employees should co-operate within the organization, both towards the companys benefit and their own. To do so, a level of transparency as well as personal incentive to achieve must be instated across the board. Allowing employees the chance to decide their own fate is ideal.

SOLUTION 1 The first solution regarding the particular instance of Maintech reward systems is, there are none, so in effect, it is not only plausible, in this minimalistic offering of a solution to state that something would be better than nothing at all, it is also practical. At this point my preferred solution lives here. It is well understood that todays economy dictates rapid workplace change, and the abundance of moving parts found at all levels of organizational structure. Even so, the first thing would be to merely introduce an incentive plan that would give employees the ability to choose how and when or where they excel, and or are rewarded. Secondly, a career path of potential venues for which to strive would be recommendable, as nobody wants to get stuck in a dead end with no possible hope of ever advancing beyond the very same state to which they were initially employed. It really is as simple as that!

SOLUTION 2 The second solution would be slightly more explicitly laid out, in terms of what rewards would be offered for what kind of performance. The ideal scenario would entail rewards for excellence in execution of professional responsibilities. By ensuring the right information gets to the right place at the right time, my role within Maintech gives me the opportunity, and the roles of others in my department, to ensure an ever higher volume of information is trafficked appropriately within the parameters of customer SLA and company policy. For performance above and beyond the calculated weekly, monthly, or even quarterly averages, which are meticulously documented and recorded, an award should be obtainable, for the most efficient within the department. Factoring into this award could be both positives and negatives, which would ultimately yield who the best performer, namely, me, is at any given time. Any moneys that would otherwise have been lost in absence of the aforementioned excellence could be used as a model for determining the precise award worth.

SOLUTION 3 The third and final solution I will propose is more or less an amalgamation and improvement upon either of the previous two by conjoining and expounding. Excellence commands incentive, and not only along the lines of continued employment. The workforce today is riddled by unemployment and vast expanses between various levels of professionalism. Personally, I have never been turned down for a job, nor had any trouble whatsoever in finding one, even when I held within my hand no bite for my bark whatsoever, and was open about it. Employees are the foundation upon which businesses are enabled to thrive, and should be treated as such.

Reflection
The matter at hand seems easy enough to grasp on first review, and yet by far hasnt been adopted in a great many instances, mine included. The problem is hard to identify. The real problem is somewhat abstract, lurking behind either side of employee or employer, the one behind the construct of capitalism in general. I cannot say whether it is comprehended fully that benefitting employees in most if not all instances, benefits the organization. At some point on the ladder of success, somebody, somewhere is either not playing with a full deck, or have been confounded by authority and personal gain to the omission of a larger, more prosperous picture. Then again, the company has made it to the fortune 500.

References
Armstrong, M. (2009). Armstrongs Handbook of Performance Management. Retrieved August 7th, 2013 from, http://library.books24x7.com.proxy.devry.edu/assetviewer.aspx?bookid=44928& chunkid=368649012&noteMenuToggle=0&hitSectionMenuToggle=0&leftMenuStat e=1 Miner, J. (2007). Organizational Theory 4: From Theory to Practice. Retrieved Aug 7th 2013from, http://library.books24x7.com.proxy.devry.edu/assetviewer.aspx?bookid=20745&chu nkid=557183566&noteMenuToggle=0&leftMenuState=1 Schermerhorn, J., Osborn, R., Hunt, J., & Uhl-Bien, M. (2012). Organizational Behavior. 12th edition. Wiley Press. Cited August 7th 2013

10

You might also like